Friday, 24 January 2014

Speakout Advanced p 116. Long Way Round. Extra Listening

Questions
Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman talk with Jonathan Ross about Long Way Round. Watch the interview to answer the following:

A) Why were the programme and book called Long Way Round?
B) What two anecdotes are told when mentioning Mongolia?
C) How did they get the idea?
D) Why did their wives not object to their three-month journey?
E) (Minute 7.10) What did they find suspicious about the man they met in Ukraine? (four things)
F) What was the scariest moment they went through? What happened?
G) (Minute 16.45) What struck them the most?

A) Why were the programme and book called Long Way Round?
Because Ewan and Charley decided to ride their motorbikes from London to new York eastwards.

B) What two anecdotes are told when mentioning Mongolia?
A man is stuck there because he had his bike stolen. Another man is crossing Mongolia from west to east hitting a golf ball.

C) How did they get the idea?
Charley says that if you ride a bike long enough you end up wanting to make a long journey. It was Ewan's idea to go round the world. They started going to Spain and then while looking at a map in Ewan's kitchen they planned to go on a round-the-world trip.

D) Why did their wives not object to their three-month journey?
Because they thought they would actually never go on that trip. They believed it was just a pipe dream (a hope or plan that is impossible to achieve or not practical).

E) What did they find suspicious about the man they met in Ukraine?
He takes lots of phone calls; instead of bringing coffee to his guests he brought a machine gun; he runs an electrical shop but he has built a huge house and is building a swimming pool, too; all his friends also had guns.

F) What was the scariest moment they went through? What happened?
They were taking a photo of an impressive landscape in Kazakhstan, which they thought would make a perfect cover for the book, when a white Lada (a Russian car brand) appeared. A man got off the car and they thought he was going to steal their camera. Another man with gold teeth was sitting in the back of the car. Suddenly he pointed a gun at them. Finally the two men burst out laughing and drove away.

G) What struck them the most?
They were both struck by the people they met, who 99 % of the times were generous, enthusiastic, excited by what they were doing, incredibly helpful and like-minded people (=with similar tastes, interests, opinions. E.g. the club offers an opportunity for like-minded people to get together).